The present invention relates generally to a golf club cleaning device and more particularly to a golf club grip washer.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the game of golf is one of the most difficult and demanding sports engaged in by participants on a worldwide basis. Those familiar with the game realize that the slightest variation in the participant's golf swing is magnified many times over in its consequence on the golfers performance and success. Thus, it is important in the play of the game, and critical in competitive play, that participants eliminate every uncontrolled variant.
The grips on golf clubs, originally formed by wrapping leather around the butt end of the club, and in more modem times by forming a sleeve fitting over the butt end of the club where the sleeve is made of rubber or rubber-like synthetic material, can have a significant impact on the ability of a golfer to execute a desired shot. The grips transfer the "feel" of the club to the golfer's hands and enable the golfer to better execute the desired shot. Conversely, when the golf club grips are soiled and dirty, or become hardened through years of exposure to the elements, the golfer loses the "feel" of the club. Also, when the golf club grips are dirty, they become slick because the relief formed in the outer surface of the grip has been filled and is smooth to the touch. Smooth surface on a grip will cause the club to slip in the golfer's hands and prevent the golfer from being able to execute the desired shot. Thus, it is important to have clean and properly conditioned equipment for a golfer to achieve maximum performance.
Golfer's are prone to clean the heads of their golf clubs after each shot and in humid or damp climates, golfers tend to wipe their club grips after every shot. The grooves in the golf club heads can also be cleaned by brushes that are attached to the golfer's bag or that may be available adjacent various tee boxes or carried on golf carts. Brushes for washing golf club grips have also been in existence for many years, but such golf club grip cleaners have a variety of deficiencies.
As is well known to golfing enthusiasts, the grips of golf clubs are tapered slightly from the butt end of the club toward the hosel of the club. Designing a device for conveniently and easily cleaning the tapered grips is difficult and the prior art devices have achieved limited success in that effort. Most prior art devices have been designed to have a sleeve into which the golf club grip is inserted and the sleeve is fitted with brush bristles generally projecting radially inwardly toward a center axis within the sleeve. In most situations, the club is agitated within the sleeve or the sleeve is rotated about the grip of the club, and the tips of the bristles have an open center core of a size that tends to flex against the outer surface of the grip. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,615, there is shown, in FIG. 2, a set of bristles for a prior art device of the type being discussed where the opening in the center of the brush is tapered in some effort to accommodate the shape of the grip. However, as can be seen in FIG. 4 of the '615 patent, all the bristles are of a length so that the bristles tend to flatten out against the outer surface of the grip. Thus, the bristles tend to lay on their side when the golf club is inserted into the device and is agitated for cleaning. When the bristles are bent, there is a smooth flat surface of the bristle that works on the outer surface of the grip, rather than the tip of the bristle to get into the crevices of the grip in order to adequately clean them.
In addition to the problem of bristles flattening out against the grip, most prior art grip cleaning devices are expensive and difficult to manufacture and assemble, necessitating a higher selling price and therefore preventing such devices from being readily marketable to the public and private sectors.
What is needed, then, is a golf grip cleaning device that is simple and inexpensive to manufacture, is efficient in operation, is long-lasting, and can be readily serviced and repaired. Such devices are not presently available on the market place or illustrated in the prior art.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a golf grip cleaning device that is simple and inexpensive to manufacture, is efficient in its operation, is easy and inexpensive to repair and maintain, and can be modified and made readily available to both the public and private golf club sectors.